Sefer Raziel HaMalakh - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Sefer Raziel HaMalakh

Encyclopedia

Sefer Raziel HaMalakh, is an archangel within the teachings of Jewish mysticism who is the "Keeper of Secrets" and the "Angel of Mysteries"...

the Angel

Malakh

In Judaism an angel is a messenger of God, an angelic envoy or an angel in general who appears throughout the Hebrew Bible, Rabbinic literature, and traditional Jewish liturgy.-Etymology:...

”), is a medieval Kabbalistic grimoire

Grimoire

A grimoire is a textbook of magic. Such books typically include instructions on how to create magical objects like talismans and amulets, how to perform magical spells, charms and divination and also how to summon or invoke supernatural entities such as angels, spirits, and demons...

, primarily written in Hebrew

Hebrew language

Hebrew is a Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Culturally, is it considered by Jews and other religious groups as the language of the Jewish people, though other Jewish languages had originated among diaspora Jews, and the Hebrew language is also used by non-Jewish groups, such...

and Aramaic

Aramaic language

Aramaic is a group of languages belonging to the Afroasiatic language phylum. The name of the language is based on the name of Aram, an ancient region in central Syria. Within this family, Aramaic belongs to the Semitic family, and more specifically, is a part of the Northwest Semitic subfamily,...

, but surviving also in Latin translation, as Liber Razielis Archangeli, in a 13th century manuscript produced under Alfonso X.

Textual history

The book cannot be shown to predate the 13th century, but may in parts date back to Late Antiquity

Late Antiquity

Late Antiquity is a periodization used by historians to describe the time of transition from Classical Antiquity to the Middle Ages, in both mainland Europe and the Mediterranean world. Precise boundaries for the period are a matter of debate, but noted historian of the period Peter Brown proposed...

.
Like other obscure ancient texts such as the Bahir

Bahir

Bahir or Sefer Ha-Bahir סֵפֶר הַבָּהִיר is an anonymous mystical work, attributed to a 1st century rabbinic sage Nehunya ben ha-Kanah because it begins with the words, "R. Nehunya Ben Ha-Kanah said"...

and Sefer Yetzirah

Sefer Yetzirah

Sefer Yetzirah is the title of the earliest extant book on Jewish esotericism, although some early commentators treated it as a treatise on mathematical and linguistic theory as opposed to Kabbalah...

, the work has been extant in a number of versions.

The tradition around the book attributes it to have been revealed to Adam by the angel Raziel

Raziel

Raziel |God]]") is an archangel within the teachings of Jewish mysticism who is the "Keeper of Secrets" and the "Angel of Mysteries"...

. The title itself is mentioned in another magical work of late antiquity, The Sword of Moses

The Sword of Moses

The Sword of Moses is the title of a apocryphal Hebrew book of magic edited by Moses Gaster in 1896 from a 13th or 14th century manuscript from his own collection, formerly MS Gaster 78, now London, British Library MS Or. 10678...

. Critical historians regard it as a medieval work, most probably originating among the Chassidei Ashkenaz

Chassidei Ashkenaz

The Chassidei Ashkenaz was a Jewish movement in the 12th century and 13th century founded by Rabbi Judah the Pious of Regensburg, Germany and several other German Jews members of the Lehr family and the Kalonymus family.Rabbi Judah was born in Speyer, Germany in 1150 during a time of persecution...

, as citations from it begin to appear only in the 13th century. Sections of it are no doubt older. The likely compiler of the medieval version is Eleazer of Worms, as "Sefer Galei Razia", which developed to what we have now as "Sefer Raziel HaMalakh", including more writings written by people of various theological opinions.

It draws heavily on Sepher Yetzirah and Sepher Ha-Razim

Sepher Ha-Razim

The Sepher Ha-Razim is a Kabbalistic text supposedly given to Noah by the angel Raziel, and passed down throughout Biblical history to Solomon, for whom it was a great source of his wisdom, and purported magical powers. Note that this is a different book than the Sefer Raziel HaMalach, which was...

. There are multiple manuscript versions, containing up to seven tractates. The printed version of Sefer Raziel is divided into five books, some of it in the form of a mystical Midrash

Midrash

The Hebrew term Midrash is a homiletic method of biblical exegesis. The term also refers to the whole compilation of homiletic teachings on the Bible....

on Creation. It features an elaborate angelology, magical uses of the zodiac

Zodiac

In astronomy, the zodiac is a circle of twelve 30° divisions of celestial longitude which are centred upon the ecliptic: the apparent path of the Sun across the celestial sphere over the course of the year...

, gematria

Gematria

Gematria or gimatria is a system of assigning numerical value to a word or phrase, in the belief that words or phrases with identical numerical values bear some relation to each other, or bear some relation to the number itself as it may apply to a person's age, the calendar year, or the like...

, names of God, protective spells, and a method of writing magical healing amulets.

Book six of the Liber Razielis is based on the Sefer ha-Razim "Book of Secrets", with various additions including the "Prayer of Adam" of Sefer Adam.

The book becomes notorious in German Renaissance magic

Renaissance magic

Renaissance humanism saw a resurgence in hermeticism and Neo-Platonic varieties of ceremonial magic.The Renaissance and the Industrial Revolution, on the other hand, saw the rise of scientism, in such forms as the substitution of chemistry for alchemy, the dethronement of the Ptolemaic theory of...

, named together with Picatrix
Picatrix
Picatrix is the name used today, and historically in Christian Europe, for a grimoire originally written in Arabic titled غاية الحكيم , which most scholars assume was written in the middle of the 11th century, though a supported argument for composition in the first half of the 10th century has...

as among the most abominable works of Nigromantia by Johannes Hartlieb

Johannes Hartlieb

Johannes Hartlieb was a physician of Late Medieval Bavaria, probably of a family from Neuburg an der Donau. He was in the employment of Louis VII of Bavaria and Albert VI of Austria in the 1430s, and of Albert III of Bavaria from 1440, and of the latter's son Sigismund from 1456.In 1444, he...

. The prayer of Adam is paraphrased by Nicholas of Cues in two sermons (Sermo I, 4, 16.25; Sermo XX, 8, 10-13) and further made use of by Reuchlin in his De Arte Cabbalistica
De Arte Cabbalistica
De Arte Cabbalistica is a 1517 text by the German Renaissance humanist scholar Johann Reuchlin, which deals with his thoughts on Kabbalah. In it, he puts forward the view that the theosophic philosophy of Kabbalah could be of great use in the defence of Christianity and the reconciliation of...

.
Konrad Bollstatter

Konrad Bollstatter

Konrad Bollstatter, also known as Konrad Müller was a professional scribe of Augsburg, employed in chancellaries in Öttingen and Höchstädt...

in the 15th century also shows awareness of the Latin version of the "Prayer of Adam" an interpolation in
Cgm 252, although he replaces Raziel with Raphael

Raphael

Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino , better known simply as Raphael, was an Italian painter and architect of the High Renaissance. His work is admired for its clarity of form and ease of composition and for its visual achievement of the Neoplatonic ideal of human grandeur...

and Seth with Sem.

"Tree of Knowledge"

Adam in his prayer to God, apologized for listening to his wife Eve חוה, who was deceived by the snake into eating from the "Tree of Knowledge" - the עץ הדעת, according to the Book of Raziel, God sent the highest of the Angels, Raziel, to teach Adam the spiritual laws of nature and life on earth, including the knowledge of the planets, stars and the spiritual laws of creation.

The Angel Raziel also taught Adam the knowledge of the power of speech, the power of thoughts and the power of a person's soul within the confines of the physical body and this physical world, basically teaching the knowledge with which one can harmonize physical and spiritual existence in this physical world.

The Angel Raziel teaches the power of speech, the energy contained within the 22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet, their combinations and meanings of names.

Adam and Abraham

According to Jewish traditions, the angel Raziel was sent to earth to teach Adam, and due the elevated soul of Abraham, Raziel returned to teach Abraham all the spiritual knowledge and spiritual laws. Raziel was sent to earth with specific purpose to teach Adam and Abraham the ways of Nature. The Book of Raziel explains everything from Astrology of the planets in our solar system, and explains how the creative life energy starts with a thought from the spiritual realms, transcending into speech and action in this physical world. The eternal divine creative life energy of this earth is love, the book explains the spiritual laws of birth, death, reincarnation of the soul, and many spiritual laws of "Change".

Heptameron

The Heptameron, ascribed to Petrus de Apono

Pietro d'Abano

Pietro d'Abano also known as Petrus De Apono or Aponensis was an Italian philosopher, astrologer and professor of medicine in Padua. He was born in the Italian town from which he takes his name, now Abano Terme. He gained fame by writing Conciliator Differentiarum, quæ inter Philosophos et Medicos...

, is based on the Book of Raziel.

Editions

Amsterdam (1701)http://www.yarzheit.com/raziel/raziel.html
Steve Savedow (trans.), Sepher Rezial Hemelach: The Book of the Angel Rezial, Red Wheel/Weiser (2000), ISBN 978-1578631933.
Giovanni Grippo (trans.), Sepher Raziel: Das Buch des Erzengels Raziel (German/Hebrew), G. G. Verlag (2009), ISBN 978-3981062243.
Giovanni Grippo (trans.), Sepher Raziel ha Malakh: Book of Raziel (English/Hebrew), G. G. Publisher (2010), ISBN 978-3981062274.

Literature

Avilés, A.G., Alfonso X y el Liber Razielis: imágenes de la magia astral judía en el scriptorium alfonsí, Bulletin of Hispanic Studies, Volume 74, Number 1, 1 January 1997, pp. 21–39

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.